Rosa von Praunheim is wearing a turquoise hat this afternoon at the Tempelhof dance school, where rehearsals for the musical “Die Bettwurst” are taking place. The adaptation of his film, which has meanwhile become a queer classic, such as “Not the gay man is perverted, but the situation in which he lives” or “This lemon still has a lot of juice” with von Praunheim’s favorite star, the now deceased Lotti Huber, was created at the request of the bar, and von Praunheim was immediately enthusiastic about the idea of producing the weird satire on German philistinism from the 70s about his aunt Luzi and the rent boy Dietmar as a musical. The musical premieres on September 8th.
Rosa, your film “Die Bettwurst” is coming to the stage of the Bar Jeder Vernunft as a musical in September. Why did you choose “The Bettwurst”?
This came about at the request of the Bar Every Reason, and since “The Bettwurst” is one of my personal favorite films, I was hooked on the idea. I have already brought several pieces with music to the stage, such as “Every Idiot has a Grandma, but I don’t” at the Deutsches Theater about five years ago and “Hitler’s Goat and the King’s Hemorrhoids” in 2020. I have So definitely experience with the “soundtrack” of my films and texts. The music will also come from Heiner Bomhard again, which I’m really looking forward to, and the lyrics are of course penned by me.
How is the stage version designed?
Of course it’s not the complete film that we bring to the stage in the bar, we take over the structure of the plot and combine 20 songs that are variations of the plot.
Benjamin Pritzkuleit
Rosa von Praunheim
Is it difficult to convert the plot into lyrics?
No, because the text writes me, so to speak. The creative process is that I am the medium for the lyrics and the music comes from Heiner Bomhard, with whom I then develop the songs together.
So it’s about your aunt Luzi again…
… who meets Dietmar Kracht, an unemployed rent boy from Berlin, on the quay in the port of Kiel. They go to the dance café, he helps her in the garden and around the house and they fall in love, which culminates in the love scene that has meanwhile become a cult. And for Christmas, Luzi gives him the famous bed sausage.
Would you describe “Die Bettwurst” as your first love film?
No, “Die Bettwurst” is of course a love story, but primarily intended as a parody of heterosexual relationships in all their pieties. As a parody of the really stuffy West German 70s and their whole stuffy attitude towards sexuality. My aunt Luzi and Dietmar Kracht simply acted out their idea of these heterosexual relationships, which also draws its wit and charm from the fact that they were both such special guys. The film is a rejection of German bourgeoisie, and both have done it with a lot of fun and playfulness. My aunt Luzi was a very open and approachable woman and immediately got along with Dietmar, who came from the hustler milieu, and she immediately got involved with him without prejudice. She was also a narcissistic self-promoter who visibly enjoyed working in front of the camera.
imago/Rainer Unkel
The LGBT Icons
Rosa von Praunheim (real name Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky, born Holger Radtke on November 25, 1942 in Riga, Latvia) is a film and theater director, producer, author, activist of the LGBTQ movement and professor of directing.
He is regarded as an important representative of New German Film and is also counted among the author and avant-garde filmmakers.
His best-known works include “The Bettwurst” (1971), “It’s not the homosexual who is perverted, but the situation in which he lives” (1971), “I’m a woman of my own” (1992) and “Men, heroes, gay Nazis” (2005). Von Praunheim lives and works in Berlin.
Who will play Luzi and Dietmar in the musical?
Anna Mateur, who I really admire, will play Luzi and Heiner Bomhard will play Dietmar.
You will be 80 in November and you said a few years ago that you still have to make a film every year for financial reasons. Is that still the case?
Yes, I do a film every year. At the end of September my film “Rex Gildo” will be released, which goes back to an idea from the RBB. I immediately found it interesting to make a film about an uptight gay man. My novel “Hasenpupsiloch” will also be published. It’s about a young man who moves into a shared apartment with three older women, whom he then sends out into the world to dispose of the dictators of this earth.
Pop singer Rex Gildo has never publicly acknowledged his homosexuality. At the time, you “forcedly outed” Alfred Biolek and Hape Kerkeling on television. Would you do that again today? There are definitely a lot of gays in German show business who haven’t come out.
No, but that was also a different time. But I would like to come out to the hidden gays in the Catholic Church, I would have a lot to do. A terribly bigoted club that railed against gays from the pulpit and probably has more homosexuals in its own ranks than you can imagine. More liberality is urgently needed.
“The Bettwurst – The Musical” premieres at 8 p.m. on September 8th in the Bar Jeder Vernunft and will be performed until October 2nd.
Tickets for the “The Bettwurst – The Musical” is here in Ticket shop of the Berliner Zeitung.